The University of Illinois has rescinded the job offer of a professor who wrote controversial social media posts about the war in Gaza, according to documents released by the university Wednesday.

Steven Salaita’s appointment at the U. of I.’s Urbana-Champaign campus was set to begin Aug. 16, with a tenured position in the American Indian studies program. His job offer came under scrutiny recently, however, after he posted numerous tweets criticizing Israel in its ongoing conflict with Hamas, including some that contained vulgar language.

Salaita was offered the U. of I. job last October, at an $85,000 salary for the academic year, according to the offer letter obtained by the Tribune on Wednesday afternoon under a public records request. The job was to begin in January 2014, but he requested that it instead begin this month after finishing the spring semester at another institution.

“Please let me express my sincere enthusiasm about your joining us,” according to the Oct. 3 offer letter from Brian Ross, U. of I.’s interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers a wonderfully supportive community, and it has always taken a high interest in its newcomers. I feel sure that your career can flourish here, and I hope earnestly that you will accept our invitation.”

Salaita signed the offer letter Oct. 9.

On Aug. 1, however, U. of I. Chancellor Phyllis Wise informed Salaita in an emailed letter that he would not have the job after all. Wise said his appointment was subject to approval by the university’s board of trustees, and the appointment would not be submitted to the board.

“We believe that an affirmative Board vote approving your appointment is unlikely,” Wise wrote. “We therefore will not be in a position to appoint you to the faculty ... Thank you for your interest in and consideration of the University of Illinois.”

Board approval is typically a rubber stamp. Indeed, on July 23, Salaita posted a message on Twitter about his excitement to join the U. of I. faculty. The U. of I. board’s next meeting is in September.

While the university didn’t release documents about Salaita’s employment status until Wednesday, there had been speculation for about a week that his job had been revoked. Salaita’s supporters have said the university is violating his academic freedom, which allows faculty to teach or write about unpopular views without fear of losing their jobs. Others have said his writings crossed a line and that academic freedom didn’t apply because he had not yet started the job.

A petition seeking his reinstatement on Change.org had gathered more than 14,000 signatures by Wednesday.

About 300 scholars from a variety of academic disciplines — sociology, composition, English, political science, philosophy and history — also have signed petitions vowing not to attend U. of I. conferences or events until the university reverses its decision.

The situation raises questions about whether posts on social media, including terse, 140-character messages on Twitter, should affect a faculty member’s job.

Throughout June and July, Salaita posted prolifically about the situation in Gaza, particularly about the children killed in the conflict. On June 20, soon after three Israelis were kidnapped and killed, he wrote: You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the (expletive) West Bank settlers would go missing.” On July 22, he wrote: “#Israel kills civilians faster than the speed of 4G.”

U. of I. English professor Cary Nelson, former national president of the American Association of University Professors, said Salaita’s actions are not protected by academic freedom because he has not yet been hired. Instead, he said, he supports the university’s decision that Salaita was “not the right fit for the campus.”

“It was valid for the campus to basically say ... we better take another look at this guy,” Nelson said.

“A lot of people have been disturbed by the character of his social media because it is in the same areas that he does his scholarship. If it was a musician saying that global warming is a bunch of nonsense, who would care? It is because the tweets are an extension of his publication, they are central to his work and many feel they cross the line into anti-Semitism,” Nelson said. “The anti-Semitism does (bother me) and what appears to be almost a solicitation of violence.”

Others said the university was well aware of Salaita’s positions on Israel when they hired him. He is the author of a 2011 book, “Israel’s Dead Soul,” for example.

Peter Kirstein, vice president of the Illinois chapter of the American Association of University Professors, called the revocation of Salaita’s job offer “outlandish.”

“This is highly irregular. It is not the way a great university or any university conducts its hiring practices. You have academic freedom, due process,” said Kirstein, chair of the organization’s academic freedom and tenure committee and a history professor at Saint Xavier University. “He could have been a little more careful in the language he used, but he had the right.”

The legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has advised Salaita on his legal rights, called the university’s decision “unprecedented and plainly unlawful in violation of the most elementary principles of academic freedom.”

“It is quite transparent that they terminated him because they disliked what he was saying about atrocities in Gaza,” said Baher Azmy, who said Salaita has asked the university to reinstate his job offer. “He issued a number of hard-hitting social media posts and obviously the university didn’t like what he was saying. A public employer can’t fire someone because they don’t like what they are saying, particularly a university.”

Salaita could not be reached for comment. He had been an English faculty member at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from 2006 until earlier this year, according to a Virginia Tech spokesman. His academic interests include colonialism and Palestine, and he is among a group of faculty members who have called for boycotting Israeli academic institutions.

Salaita’s last tweets about Israel and Gaza were on Aug. 2. He had no social media posts until Tuesday, when he wrote: “Thank you, everybody, for your support. I have received your many messages and am deeply grateful.”